Arts & Culture
Jazz Big Band students will perform alongside legendary pianist Benny Green
Lecturer and band leader Charles Hamilton, a Bay Area jazz staple, was Green’s middle school music teacher and arranged his visit to campus.
UC Santa Cruz student jazz performers. Photographer: Raven Pavao
When he was 12, Charles Hamilton saw Louis Armstrong on television—he thinks on The Ed Sullivan Show. That pivotal performance inspired him to tell his mother he wanted to play trumpet.
It’s worked out well. After a long and successful career as a music teacher in the Bay Area and director of the legendary Berkeley High School Jazz Band, plus gigging locally, nationally, and internationally, Hamilton now leads the UC Santa Cruz Jazz Big Band Ensemble as a lecturer in the Music Department. In 2023, he was inducted into the California Alliance for Jazz Hall of Fame.
Now, Hamilton’s past and present are set to collide in exciting ways. Legendary jazz pianist Benny Green, one of Hamilton’s former music students at Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, will be playing with the UC Santa Cruz students’ Big Band Ensemble, at Hamilton’s invitation. The upcoming public performance, on Dec. 7 from 7:30–9:30p.m. at the Music Center Recital Hall, will feature the music of Thelonius Monk as well as a composition by Green. Hamilton remembers Green as remarkably talented, like so many of the students he has taught.
“The thing about him that was different was that he went off to make a name for himself in New York,” Hamilton said. “He couldn’t wait to get out of school so he could get to the East Coast. He got on with Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard, and Betty Carter when he was very young.”
Hamilton’s current students, including Justin Ray, a third-year student and the band manager, feel lucky to have an opportunity to work with someone as experienced as Green. Ray’s been playing trumpet since the fourth grade, and he calls it his mission in life to introduce his generation to jazz. Monk’s music is difficult, like “venturing forth into the unknown,” he says, so he’s excited to play it on the stage with Green.
“I think Benny Green is probably the coolest guest artist I’ve gotten to work with,” Ray said. “I mean, the Jazz Messengers with Art Blakey are my favorite group, so to play with an actual living Jazz Messenger is insane to me. I’m pretty hyped about it, to say the least.”
Baritone saxophonist Lucas Elliot, a fifth-year majoring in applied physics, agrees. Elliot has been earning money with his music since seventh grade, when he and four other students in the school band needed $3,000 to pay for a trip to Washington, D.C., and they raised it playing on the street.
Elliot first heard of Green’s music through his jazz teacher at Berkeley High School, Sarah Cline.
“She was in band with Benny Green under the direction of Charles Hamilton, who is now my current jazz teacher, so that’s pretty incredible,” he said. “It’s just a real exposition of what we’ve got going on in the Bay Area and Northern California. It’s not New York, but it’s cool getting all these folks in the same spot.”
Hamilton looks forward to the 20 or so students in the band meeting Green and playing with him.
“That’s the whole idea—bringing well-known musicians to the campus, so the students will become familiar with who they are,” he said. “The exposure, that’s what’s important.”
General admission tickets are $12 through Eventbrite, and full performance details are on the campus events calendar. UC Santa Cruz undergraduate students can attend the UC Santa Cruz Jazz Big Band performance with guest artist Benny Green for free (ticket required).